Who am I? What is my purpose on this earth? These fundamental questions rarely come at a younger age when we feel ourselves immortals, life unfolding in front of our eyes like a never ending path. Unless one is an “old soul”, these questions will pop up at a later stage in life. But one would never be too young to address these queries.

The most fascinating and rewarding thing is to find ourselves on the yoga path. Mysterious at first, unfamiliar language, rituals, philosophy are presented to our curious minds. As we deepen our studies, we soon come across the “chakras”: we are taught their meaning, attributes, location etc. Among the hundreds of them (may be thousands?), we particularly get to study seven in our yogic tradition. Vortexes of prana, we receive what comes our way and give out our own transformed energy.

Recently, I imagined the three lower chakras, with earth, water and fire as their element, forming this vessel, this beautiful ceramic pot, as our container. Once well formed and solidly “baked”, this container is now ready to receive the seed of the heart chakra. With our practices, we feed and nurture that seed and watch it climb up expressing our truth, who we really are, speaking words of love and kindness. The vine keeps climbing up to Ajna chakra, the door to the Mysterious Beyond, the third eye opening to reveal unknown treasures by the ordinary mind. Quiet, in the deep silence, we get to feel, see, hear with unprecedented awareness the richness, the secrets of nature, Prakriti”, the eternal movement of the Life Force we are part of.

And then, may be just for a nanosecond (just like Krishna’s and Arjuna’s encounter on the battle field), we get into Union, into Yoga and finally discover who we really are. Yes I am That, That I am. With practice, this Yoga can be sustained and permeate our whole life.

The chakras, an extraordinary system discovered by ancient sages, are made available to us now by our teachers. Even the electronic world opens this Pandora box to any interested and of curious mind. Listen to your teachers, deeply, hear their message, but mostly, sit in meditation and do your work assiduously. Be alert, without your judgmental mind, grow the seed within in search of your Higher Self. That is who you really are. And then, use this knowledge to be of service around you, your families, your yogic community, your students. A selfless being, at the service of Self and the world.

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